There belies the truth
by chloemcg
Summary: one-shot. Phoenix leaves the Wright anything agency for a few days for a mysterious reason, leaving Trucy to assume that she was being abandoned again. When he comes back, he has a surprise for her.


**Disclaimer: I don't own anyone from the Ace attorney franchise, the rights to both of them belong to Capcom.**

 **There belies the truth**

* * *

Normally the Wright anything agency was filled with good natured cheer, and the air would have been filled with its regular enthusiasm.

But not tonight.

Trucy Wright, adopted daughter of the great attorney, Phoenix Wright, and magician extraordinaire, was currently on a bed whilst she cried her eyes out. Her mid-back-length chestnut brown hair was spread all over the duvets and pillows and her cape was pulled over her shoulders like a blanket.

She lay in bed face-down and cried like there was no tomorrow.

Trucy couldn't remember the last time she felt tears ceaselessly stream down her face like this, she felt her throat constrict and her lower lip quivered. Her back arched in perfect synchronisation with her sobs and her eyeballs started to sting from the amount of her tears but she hardly cared about that.

She just wanted her daddy back...the spiky-haired ace attorney had went away on another one of his trips without telling anyone and he packed a big suitcase that looked as though he was going on holiday or something. He also acted supremely distant and secretive from her before he left, such as ignoring her when she arrived home from school or tried to show him a new trick she had learned for her shows.

Of course, most people would consider Phoenix behaving shiftily and secretive like this "normal" for him...but Trucy knew that her father would never keep secrets from her as she could tell whenever he was fibbing due to her heightened sense of perception.

In the days before he left, the older jet black spiky-haired lawyer would just sit at his desk and only acknowledge her with a simple wave of his hand, looking all tired and worried as he looked at several papers.

Then he left without reason.

The magician gripped on to her pillows and she buried her face in the fabric whilst she howled into it -the noise of her wails were rather muffled due to the pillow being pressed so hard into her mouth and nose, and the poor 16-year-old found herself feeling super bad for this childish outburst that she felt had probably sent her father away in the first place.

She didn't know what she did wrong, but she figured it could have something to do with her.

Obviously her daddy went away for some reason and she knew it was because of her, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why!

Did she do something bad without even knowing it?

She let out a soft little startled gasp when she heard a gentle knock on the door, her head lifted from the pillow she held on to and she looked at the door behind her with rather blurred vision. Hot tears continued to run down her face and she had to bite her lip, hard, to prevent more tears from cascading down her reddened cheeks and she tried in vain to wipe away the stray tears with a little rub of the back of her hand.

"G-Go away..." She spoke meekly, wanting to be left alone to wallow in her sorrow.

"Trucy, it's us. Can we come in? Please?" A familiar voice called out, seeming to ignore her pleas for them to leave her be.

The ace magician looked down rather sadly.

She may have been down in the dumps, but she knew that it wouldn't be very polite to deny her friends and her dad's students access to the room. She just gave a soft whimper of consent and listened carefully to the approaching footsteps that creaked against the floorboards of the bedroom.

Trucy could clearly hear Apollo Justice and Athena Cykes approach and then she felt a weight on the space of the bed beside her, tipping the mattress just a bit.

It was now plainly obvious that she now had two visitors that were on her bed now.

Apollo had sat himself on the edge of the magician's bed and he glanced down at her, seemingly saddened by seeing the 16-year-old under so much distress. She was crying her poor eyes out and she looked to have been in this state for awhile now...it was just heartbreaking to see the normally happy-go-lucky young girl so distraught.

The spiky-fringed attorney placed his hand against the young girl's back, he could feel the slight jolts her body made with each sob with the palm of his hand. His heart broke a bit at the sight of seeing the normally cheery young woman and he couldn't help but let his eyes soften gently.

"There, there, Truce. This isn't like you," He whispered softly, in a way so unlike his normal Chords of steel shouting "what's the matter?"

Trucy choked softly against a sob that caught in her throat, her body gave a very slight tremble and she sniffled tearfully as she finally started to calm down enough to actually attempt to try forming words. Her sweet deep blue eyes shimmered like stars in the night sky and she attempted to calm herself before replying to the lawyer in red's inquiry.

She cleared her throat as best she could and looked Apollo dead in the eye.

"I h-h-haven't seen daddy in days, he didn't even tell me where he was going a-and..."

She trailed off when she started to hyperventilate, losing control of her breathing due to the fact that she suffered from slight panic attacks due to some childhood traumatic events such as her mother and father leaving her. Her skin changed from its light peach colour to chalk white, her hands started to shake, her eyes were wide in their sockets and very glossy; she was the epitome of fright.

Apollo rubbed Trucy's back to soothe her, sparing her an encouraging smile. "It's okay, continue."

Trucy regained her composure, mostly reigning in her out-of-control emotions, and she adjusted her position as she clung on to the attorney in red. She continued her explanation, a single tear sliding down her cheek. She swallowed hard when a large marble formed in her throat and she blinked her raw bloodshot eyes.

"U-Ulp, well, uh, for the past couple of months you know how daddy seemed...you know...well...?"

Apollo and Athena both looked to each other. Trucy didn't have to finish that question, they were both well aware that their boss had been acting rather strange lately; Phoenix wouldn't spend as much time as he usually would with Trucy and his attention would almost always be either focused on a screen of some kind, (specifically the computer screen) and he had seemed pretty distracted and busy.

It created a lot of worry and confusion for Apollo and Athena, alas neither of them had suspected that Trucy would be _this_ upset about it. The two lawyers turned to look back at the distressed teen and each took a seat on the beds mattress; Apollo spoke again, his famous horns drooping slightly over his eyes which were pooling with confusion and concern.

"We _had_ noticed that Mr. Wright seemed pretty distracted lately but he is a busy man and you know that, Trucy..."

Apollo tilted his head sideways.

"Have you tried calling him?"

Trucy shook her head sombrely, "My phone broke and is now in repairs..."

However, that was then Trucy's imagination started to run wild. Her eyes had changed from upset to wide and almost crazed and tearily glossy, her breathing started to quicken again as she grabbed on tight to the spiky-banged attorney's chest and pulled on the red fabric of his sleeveless vest.

"Polly, Thena, w-what if daddy abandoned me? What if I done something wrong and he now hates me and left! I...I...!"

Out of a unique mix of stress, despair, fear and sadness, Trucy snatched up her own top hat from her nightstand and started to twist it like someone wringing a damp cloth. Her eyes were wide and she had this savage look in them as she squeezed her hat so hard that it had basically crumpled in her tight fists.

She was the absolute epitome of a nervous wreck.

Apollo looked down at the magical teen incredulously and quickly reigned in her emotions by grabbing her by the shoulders and then pulled her in for a tight hug, effectively silencing Trucy and stopping her rambling for a moment. He kept his voice even whilst he tried to pull her thinking back into the logical side instead of all her thoughts becoming jumbled up.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah! Trucy, don't be silly! He wouldn't do that!"

Trucy pushed away a bit from Polly and looked him in the eye. She seemed so upset and hopelessly confused right now and it was a heartbreaking sight to see. Her cheeks had reddened dramatically and her expression was etched with panic and fear as she let her head duck in-between her shoulders.

Apollo then blurted out the very first explanation for all Phoenix's actions that popped into his head and it turned out to be the very worst option that could have flown from his lips.

"Your father probably just left on a business trip and didn't tell you about it..."

That didn't help. Trucy's eyes watered even more as she squeaked "Y-You mean daddy went away and abandoned me!?"

The twenty-three-year old lawyer cringed and panicked, clearly that was the wrong way to interpret that!

"AH! N-No, no, no, no, no, Truce, I didn't mean it like that at all!"

Too late.

Trucy then proceeded to cry hysterically.

As Apollo frantically attempted to try and calm the magician down, Athena glared hotly and smacked him across the back of his shoulder while Trucy cried much louder than she had been before, if that were even possible! The two lawyers didn't say anything but it was now abundantly clear that they, or rather Apollo, had accidentally made things much worse.

Athena decided to try amend that.

Especially as at the rate were Trucy was going, she was going to flood the whole entire office/agency.

The ginger-haired lass reached over and gently rubbed her back to try and comfort her, shooting her horn-headed colleague a look of blazing fury as she done so, "No, no, no! What _Apollo_ was _trying_ to say was that he'll definitely come back."

Trucy sniffled and asked lamely whilst she buried her face into her pillow, her voice muffled. "H-How do you know?"

Athena looked at her somewhat firmly, her eyes narrowing.

"Because he loves you far too much, his heart screams it each time he's in the same room as you..."

The lawyer in yellow smiled compassionately, giving her back a few good pats for reassurance. "Sweetie, your father could never abandon you—" Then she leaned forwards and whispered into the girl's ear "—but if he did, I'd totally kick his sorry backside all over the place."

Apollo pointed out "But you could get fired for that..."

"Apollo, shut up!"

Trucy's facial expression lightened up and her posture softened and became less tense as she tried to stop the tears that were streaming down her bosses daughter's face, and she couldn't help but snicker quietly at their silliness.

Apollo turned to face and smiled reassuringly down at the teenaged girl and gave her a few warm pats on the shoulder himself.

"Trust me, Truce, your dad will come home soon and everything will be just fine."

* * *

 _A few days later..._

The door to the agency creaked open and Phoenix Wright stepped inside, he was shocked to find that the office was pretty empty.

It was dark and the atmosphere felt as stiff as a recumbent spinal cord. Although the curtains were open enough to allow a little bit of sunlight through, the office was quite saddened and it felt rather hollow. Even Charley the plant seemed to have been rather saddened -sure he looked to have been watered, but he could almost sense a disappointed vibe coming from the potted plant and it was almost like the plant was shunning him.

Even though he was rather unnerved by this, Phoenix was more shocked that there wasn't a hug from Trucy waiting for him like he was expecting.

Perhaps they weren't yet aware that he had come home?

He shook his head. That had to be it. He decided to alert the trio to his presence just encase that this was the reason for the lack of happiness on his return.

"Hello? I'm home!"

Phoenix was relieved that he got an answer this time and Athena came strolling straight out of a room deeper into the office, the room that could be considered Trucy's bedroom whilst she stayed over in the office while he had to stay up late and research stuff on a new case, with a huge stack of files held carefully in her arms. The spiky-haired lawyer's frown only deepened when he saw the red-head coming out of her room, why was she even in there? Was Trucy upset?

The ace attorney's brows knitted together to paint a look of concern and he looked to his protege as though she knew every single question to every single answer. His eyes gleamed with confusion.

"What's the matter with her, Athena?"

Athena almost jumped out of her skin when she heard that voice, the files plummeting to the floor and hitting it with a loud clatter of a noise. Her eyes were wide and her jaw had become so slack that it almost hit the floor below as she quickly whirled on her heels to face the direction of the new voice that she hadn't been expecting.

When she saw her boss stood by the door, she gave a quick sigh of relief.

Athena placed her hand over her chest where her heart was in an attempt to cease it from beating so hard that she'd be at risk of going into cardiac arrest, breathing quickly in slight panic.

"O-Oh, Mr. Wright! You startled me..."

Phoenix didn't move nor did his expression falter for even a millisecond. He kept that stern expression plastered on his face, his wiry brows knitted together and his eyeballs narrowed into a fierce scowl that was akin to that of a parent arriving home to find that his child threw a party while he was absent. He folded his arms across his chest and stared at the rather unnerved eighteen-year-old lawyer.

"You didn't answer me, Athena," He said with a voice as chilling as an arctic breeze, "What's wrong with Trucy? Don't lie to me because I know when somethings up."

Athena didn't know how to respond appropriately to Phoenix's inquiry. All she could do was shift uncomfortably where she stood as she looked the older spiky-attorney directly in the eye and it was a rather uncomfortable stand off between a boss and his understudy.

But then, thank goodness, Apollo decided to show up and break the ice.

"Hey, Athena, what's with all the-" He started but then he spotted Phoenix and froze like a statue with a look of shock on his face, "Oh! Hi, Mr. Wright!"

Phoenix managed a slight smile as he greeted the younger lawyer.

"Hi, Apollo." Then his scowl came back, "You wouldn't happen to know where my daughter is?"

It was Apollo's turn to seize up, his horns of hair stood on end and a cold sheen of sweat started to stick to his skin. He couldn't help but glance around the room nervously with his deep brown eyes as wide as dinner plates. He and Athena both knew that Trucy was still in her bedroom and not prepared to see her father just yet, but he couldn't tell his miffed boss this. He shook his head, swallowing a marble-sized lump in his throat.

"Ummm...n-n-n-nope, haven't seen her..."

Phoenix just gave Apollo a blank look whilst he folded his arms across his chest. He wasn't fooled in the very least, he had stood behind a stand in court and pointed out several contradictions for years and so was quite good at catching people out at lying without having to use his Magatama to detect Psyche-locks.

"Apollo, you may be good at perceiving lies but you are terrible at telling them."

Apollo didn't move but he did lower his head and smirked rather anxiously, he raised his hand and scratched the back of his head fretfully. He knew that he was terrible at lying (despite him being a living lie-detector) but he knew that he sort of had to to spare Trucy's feelings, as she was still sad at her father.

Phoenix got back to the original topic, "Now. Can you tell me where Trucy is?"

Apollo glanced over to Athena and she glanced at him back, both unsure what they should tell their boss. Phoenix Wright was normally a laid back kind of man but when it came to the light of his life -his dear daughter- his personality would shift from calm and even lazy to snappy and impatient. They feared for what they should tell him, how could they tell him that he hurt Trucy with his absence?

"...Daddy?"

Everyone was shocked when they turned to face the room where Trucy was originally inside and saw that she was stood in the doorway and leaning heavily against the doorframe. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy from the tears she cried these passed few days and her cheeks were bright red. She wore her original magicians outfit, complete with top hat, but she seemed so depressed that it was unbelievable that _this_ was the bright and bubbly teenaged girl they knew.

Phoenix didn't want to believe what he was seeing.

His daughter, his beloved Trucy...she looked so sad.

He didn't know that it was possible for him to ever feel like it again but he could feel as his poor heart broke into separate pieces. Several questions whirled in his mind: Could his absence have had such an impact on his poor adopted daughter? Had she been crying so much because she missed him? How could he even begin to remedy it?

Trucy walked sullenly towards Phoenix, eyes starting to flood with tears. Her head was lowered and her expression was now mostly unreadable when she stumbled up to him.

"D-Daddy? Why did you leave? Don't you love m-m-me anymore?" She asked sadly.

Phoenix was stunned.

"What? No! How can you even-"

He didn't even get to finish his sentence.

Trucy fell to a weeping heap at his feet, causing the ace attorney to feel his heart smash into a billion pieces. He felt terrible for not spending too much time with Trucy before he left for this important business trip -poor girl must have felt like she had been abandoned for the second time in her life...but he knew that he had to show her the reason for the secretiveness on his part.

" **TAKE THAT!** "

Phoenix quickly presented a piece of paper to the distraught girl.

An adoption certificate.

Trucy froze when she saw the adoption paper, her heart skipped a beat and she felt as though she was wrapped in a blanket of snow. Her teary bloodshot eyes scanned the neat writing that stamped upon the official documents. Was this what she thought it was? Were her eyes tricking her...? She blinked a few times to see whether her eyes were betraying her and the was almost delighted that her vision wasn't lying.

Phoenix sighed as Trucy melted into his embrace and cried much happier tears and shoved her face into his chest. He couldn't help but let the certificate drift to the floor before furling his strong arms around her stiff little body so he could envelope her into a big loving snuggle and his soft yet determined abyss blue eyes shimmered with this soothing warmth.

He crooned in a tender tone. "It's okay, sweetheart...shhh...I'm here..."

It hurt to see his daughter in such emotional pain, he couldn't help but hold her tight and he didn't want to release her. He felt as the magician's head burrowed into his shoulder as she cried against it with as much emotional energy she could whilst she clung on tightly to him as though he would float away the second she let go.

It was during this that Apollo and Athena quietly snuck off to let father and daughter have some time by themselves since they clearly needed it.

When Trucy's cries dulled into whimpers, Phoenix started explaining himself.

"Sorry that it took awhile to get it. I couldn't officially adopt you, since the agreement was I was waiting for Zak to come and get you and reclaim his parental rights but..." He glanced sadly away for a moment, "...since he's no longer with us..." Then he looked back to Trucy, "...I thought that it was time I made it official, you've been my baby girl for years now and I hoped that we could become a family for real...I wanted it to be a surprise."

Trucy's eyes teared up with emotion.

So that was why her daddy had been acting so strange lately...?

The magician's chest became so swollen from the affection that she was almost afraid that her heart would burst. She tightened her grip around the spiky-haired ace attorney in blue and she could have sworn that she could feel the corners of her own lips curling upwards uncontrollably, she wanted to stay in that embrace forever.

Sadly, it could not last forever.

Neither Phoenix nor Trucy knew how long they spent on the floor in the middle of the office but eventually, the former rose to stand on his own two feet and helped his daughter stand up as well by taking her hand and pulling her up.

Trucy hopefully grinned up at her official adopted father "So, daddy, will I finally be allowed to wear lipstick?"

Phoenix just furrowed his brows at her yet a kind-hearted smile swept across his face. She knew full well what the answer would be and he was going to repeat himself with that same answer, albeit playfully.

"Absolutely not."

Trucy asked again. "What about on special occasions?"

Phoenix smiled as he couldn't find the ability to frown on this happy occasion so he just decided to humour his baby girl a bit, he shrugged his shoulders and glanced over to her. He took her hand as they exited through the office door and made their way down the stairs, intending on going out so they could spend the day together in order to celebrate their union as official father and daughter.

Phoenix sighed.

"I...I'll think about it."

* * *

 **A/N: Here's another Ace attorney fanfic, except this is another father/daughter fluffy fic.**

 **I'm proud of how this one turned out and I had been working on this for awhile (and it's been quite some time since I uploaded a fanfic like this) but just NOW decided to post it. I hope that you guys enjoy it because I made sure to put in as much fluffiness as I could.**

 **Please review and fave and tell me what you think! ;)**

 **-Chloemcg**


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